Shark Tank icon Kevin O’Leary has revealed his plan to buy TikTok, as the company is facing a ban in the United States if it doesn’t sell off US operations.
O’Leary, known as ‘Mr Wonderful’ on ABC’s Shark Tank, is seeking investors to crowdfund a purchase of TikTok and make it an American company.
The entrepreneur revealed his plan on the website StartEngine and is letting possible investors “reserve” their spot to commit funds towards a sale.
“With recent U.S. legislation forcing a sale of TikTok, Mr. Wonderful is taking steps to purchase the social media platform from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. And he’s inviting you to join him in his quest to make TikTok an American-owned company,” the website states.
The clock is ticking on TikTok🕒. Congress has passed a law that gives it less than 270 days to sell to interests that are governed by US laws or be shut down. I'd like to democratize TikTok and turn it into a platform where the user data is protected from the prying eyes of… pic.twitter.com/Rgzd4TGtdu
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) May 28, 2024
The Shark has been adamant about buying the app for months now, telling Fox News in March that with its monthly active users surpassing 1 billion, it’s absolutely worth “billions,” and all of his companies already use it.
“What I’m proposing is purchasing these assets into a new American company. I’ll guarantee the servers are on American soil. I’ll guarantee you will close the Chinese back doors in the code. I’ll guarantee it becomes safe for the users, the parents, small business and large business,” the former Canadian Conservative Party leadership candidate said.
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On April 24, President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring ByteDance to divest its US TikTok operations by January 19, 2025 or face a nationwide ban.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to fight the possible ban in court and has argued it’s in “violation of the first amendment rights.”
However, O’Leary doesn’t believe the issue is about free speech, arguing instead that it has “everything to do with the Supreme leader of China spying on US consumer data.”
O’Leary isn’t the only big name who has voiced an interest in acquiring TikTok. Ex-Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has also reportedly approached TikTok to make a deal that included OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, but so far no sale has been announced.